Emergency moption for UNISON National Delegate Cnference 2026

Conference notes:

1.      The Supreme Court ruling in April 2025 tore up decades of shared legal understanding on the rights of transgender people to live their lives. 

2.      The governments impact assessment indicates a cost of billions to businesses and the public sector to change toilet and other provisions in a time of continued austerity.

3.      The government’s equality impact assessment notes that the new EHRC guidelines could leave trans women open to “disproportionate risk of violence and sexual assault” by being forced into male facilities.

Conference believes:

4. The Supreme Court ruling (April 2025),  High Court ruling on 13 February 2026 and EHRC guidelines publ;ishined May 2026 are an urgent threat to the Trans+ community, as its workplace element mandates trans-exclusionary toilets in workplaces without individual lockable rooms. The current EHRC guidelines represent an enforced segregation for trans people.

5. The EHRC guidelines in May 2026 have now been published which effectively labels transgender people a third gender, and requires organisations and institutions to enter into complex, confusing arrangements for bathroom and toilet provisions.  

6. That the new EHRC guidelines are disproportionate and unenforceable. They are disproportionate as they impose sweeping changes across organisations
The guidelines are unenforceable as you cannot gender check everyone who wants to access toilets.

Conference resolves to call on the NEC to:

7. Launch a campaign against the new EHRC guidelines which discriminate against transgender people.  UNISON should lobby Parliament to amend the law to explicitly state that trans women are women and trans men are men, with protections for non-binary identities.

8. Seek legal advice to ensure that UNISON is prepared to defend the rights of Trans+ members once the updated EHRC Code of Practice is laid before Parliament and comes into force.

9  Provide vocal support for the Good Law Project’s appeal against the High Court’s 13 February 2026 ruling on workplace facilities.

10. Undertake a campaign around the unworkability and disproportionality of the guidelines, their affront to dignity at work and their direct attack on the bodily autonomy of transgender people.